Does your household produce or consume? Since the industrial revolution the basic structure of a “home” has shifted from a small production center to a consumption of goods and services.

It is time to change our thinking. Work is not a four letter word. Well, yes, it is, but work is not a BAD four letter word. The goal isn’t to sit as much as possible in life. The goal is to find a way to express ourselves while providing a value to our family, and society.

I am not advocating living in the woods and wearing home spun clothes. I am suggesting that we need to relearn the skills that our grandparents had. And the primary skill was self sufficiency. Yes, they leaned on their neighbors or family during the tough times, but they also knew how to run a house like a small business. You had to keep it functioning, keep it running, it keep it afloat to provide for the members in the house.

Maybe that is a little too theoretical, but you can do some small changes that would have long term payouts for your family.

“The household had changed from a center of production that supplied most of its own needs to a center of consumption that bought nearly everything it needed.”

Think about the skills a preteen child would have learned in the late 1800’s to be a productive member of their household:
1. Clean (simple but oh so needed in life!).
2. Making candles.
3. Feeding livestock, even if it was just the chickens!
4. Slaughter animals for meals. Those chickens weren’t for show. Ever pull some pork from a smokehouse? It isn’t like the supermarket!
5. Making thread, yarn or other materials and then sewing or repairing clothing.
6. Planting.
7. Keeping the plants free of weeds.
8. Herbal medicine.
9. Treating wounds and emergency medicine.
10. Cooking. How many adults do not even have this skill anymore. Remember most things were made from scratch then, not opening a can of soup and reheating. This was a real skill.
11. Making butter.
12. Milking a cow.
13. Working lumber.
14. Firewood. A lot of work here!
15. Working a horse.
16. Hunting and fishing.
17. Knots and working lines to secure things.
18. The ability to barter. You needed to work a deal to stay ahead financially.

Do you think children were ignorant coming from a one room country school house?

Here is the math portion of exam for a late 19th century student in Kansas:
Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours)
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft deep, 10 feet long and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050lbs. for tare?
4. District No. 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per meter?
8 Find bank discount on $300 for! 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

Notice how it is an applied exam. These are questions that will allow a person to work the math for making a living in life. Not the theory of math that is taught now.

This isn’t the 1800’s and the vast majority of us do not live on farms. However, the idea of self reliance and being a center of production can be used today within our modern lives.

Remember doing bake sales or selling lemonade? Is everyone in your family on the Internet?

I bet you could teach your children how to start and run a business over the web. Sell items over Ebay or you can teach them to write, make videos, do small jobs on eLance or Guru for work.

How about selling gift baskets over the web during the holidays; Mother’s day, Father’s day, Valentine’s day. All of those guilt filled holidays can teach a child how to design a product, cost and build the product, and run the books for a business. You play the bank and venture capitalist. They learn about borrowing, selling their ideas to you. They will learn some new skills in a low risk experiment. I had a friend in college that was selling eggs in High School on her bike. She paid for her college tuition with her own little business.

A neighbor used to run a salon in her basement when I was growing up. I am sure the zoning was against her, but she was raising her children after her husband died. The neighbors never complained to the city, it was expected that she took care of her family. Her little basement was a center of production!

The older sections of most cities have businesses with living quarters above them. That was built in the USA, Europe and Australia. You provided some service and you lived above the business.

Then the idea of the suburbs was developed. Move out, get space, and commute to work. Buy everything you need in exchange for your time. Never stop.

Try to get creative. Your time at your job is valuable, but you need to step aside, let the others stay on the treadmill. Break the cycle.

Making Cider:

Here is the plan:

Reduce your consumption on unnecessary items.
Become a center of independence and production (change your thinking!)
Eliminate your debt.
Build your savings.
Make your money work for you.
Become free in life and mind!

“The fact of the matter is that America is broke — whether it’s mortgages, student loans or credit cards, we are broke. The old rule of thumb is that people should have six months’ of savings,” Dvorkin says.”If you talk to people, most don’t have two pennies.”

What a System!

I do have credit card debt. After eliminating all debt in my life, I cut up my credit cards. Then I found out my credit score went down. I then had to get a high fee credit card to rebuild my score because I had a poor score. You actually get punished for paying with cash and having savings!

Think about this. The banks and credit scoring agencies have set up a game through “Fair Isacc” sanction through Congress, that allows them to control you. If you live on cash, you get punished. You must stay in the game if you want to ever buy a house, a car, an emergency medical issue, or any big ticket items on credit. Your savings account does not matter.

So I built up my credit score again. Now I keep a balance on my credit cards to ensure I show a positive score and I pay my bills on time. Except I paid my bills on time when I used cash. What a racket they have us all trapped in.

How to Play It Safely!

The way to beat this game is, you need to keep about a 30% floating balance on your credit. Use and pay off the cards or other loans on time.

Make sure this is a low interest rate card. Your credit union is typically a source of a lower interest credit card.

Keep enough money in savings to eliminate the credit balance at any time. You are basically able to eliminate your debt with an online transfer, but you are keeping a running balance to ensure “Fair Isacc” monitors your ability to manage your debts.

What’s Next?

Get your savings up. You need that six months of expenses in the bank to ensure you can weather most financial storms.

FASCISM

NAZISM

BUREAUCRATISM

You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away…

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM

You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

SURREALISM

You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyze why the cow has dropped dead.

ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM

You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt / equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.

The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a
Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.
You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States , leaving you with nine cows.
No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.

FRENCH CORPORATION

You have two cows.
You go on strike, organize a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION

You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called ‘Cowkimon’ and market it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows, but you don’t know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION

You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION

You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.
You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION

You have two cows.
Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION

Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out of you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of Democracy….

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION

You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go to the pub for a few beers to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION

You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive.

A GREEK CORPORATION

You have two cows.
You borrow against the cows from the Germans
You kill the cows and make souvlaki
You can’t pay the interest so the Germans lend you more money
You can’t pay the interest so the Germans lend you more money
You can’t pay the interest so the Germans lend you more money
You can’t pay the interest so the Germans lend you more money …..